Product packages comprising a tray/tub with a film seal and/or a lid are known in the art. Some products require that they be kept sealed from the environment until opened by a consumer. However, current product packages with film seals are cumbersome for the consumer to use, are inefficient in design, and are limited in functionality.
Certain products require that the atmosphere in which they are stored be different than the standard environmental atmosphere and thus the product package must maintain the integrity of the modified atmosphere within the package. As a non-limiting example, some food packages require that the food product be held in a modified atmosphere. Other product packages may have different modified atmospheric requirements, such as an inert gas, nitrogen, etc. Each of these product packages must maintain their respective modified atmospheres for a reasonable period of time so that the product is sold to the consumer in the state intended by the seller.
In the case of food product packages, some tray-with-lid packages have difficulty maintaining a modified atmosphere within the package and therefore the food product is required to be sealed in a pouch which is placed within the tray. While the lid on such a package may be used more than once by the consumer, the product must still be placed in a sealed pouch prior to purchase which requires extra manufacturing steps, additional processing time, further materials, and consequently higher cost. Additionally, the consumer must perform two separate steps to open the package: a first step to remove the lid from the tray, and a second step to remove the product from the pouch.
Other food product packages which have a film sealed to the top of the tray are able to maintain the modified atmosphere inside the package until opened by the consumer. However, these tray-film-lid packages also suffer from similar drawbacks. For example, the consumer must still perform two separate steps to open the package: a first step to remove the lid, and a second step to remove the film.
Still other food packages may only have a tray-with film construction. While these packages only require one step to remove the film, these types of packages are not resealable or reusable by the consumer without resorting to the use of a different sealing material, e.g., a cling-type film, aluminum foil, etc.
Accordingly, there is a need for product packages which are easier to manufacture, easier for the consumer to open, require fewer resources to produce, and are resealable and/or reusable by the consumer.